"If You Want Something Done, Ask a Woman"
Former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, perhaps said it best, "If you want something done, ask a woman".
One week after the ABB FIA Formula E Championship series concluded its 2017-18 season on the Brooklyn waterfront with the running of the NYC ePrix, the IMSA WeatherTech Northeast Grand Prix came to the New York Metro region’s Lime Rock Park road course in nearby Connecticut.
Above: Start of the 2018 ABB FIA NYC ePrix. Photo Courtesy Warren Rosenberg
There was one very special person who made an appearance at both events – veteran race car driver Katherine Legge – and for two very special reasons. On July 13th, just prior to the Formula E season-ending race in a joint press release, the Jaguar Racing Team, FIA Formula E, and Rahal-Letterman-Lanigan Racing announced that Katherine Legge would be the first driver named to participate in a new all-electric racing series, the Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY series, a support series to the ABB FIA Formula E Championship. The I-PACE eTROPHY series will run modified versions of street-legal, battery-powered, production vehicles and the races will be run on the same tracks as the ABB FIA Formula E Championship races as part of each weekend’s racing events during the upcoming 2018-19 season. We look forward to Katherine’s appearance in NYC on the weekend of July 13-14, 2019, as both the FIA Formula E Championship and Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY series return to the NY Metro area to close out their seasons and crown their respective champions.
Above: Katherine Legge in NYC for her introduction as the first woman driver in the new Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY Series. Photo Courtesy Jaguar USA
Following her weekend in NYC and her introduction as the new series first named driver, Katherine headed slightly north to Lime Rock Park where, the very next weekend, she piloted the # 86 Acura NSX GT3 around the 1.5 mile road course sharing driving duties with team mate Alvaro Parente in the IMSA WeatherTech Northeast Grand Prix. She currently stands in second place among all 63 GT Daytona class drivers.
Above: Katherine Legge in the #86 Acura NSX GTA at the IMSA WeatherTech Northeast Grand Prix. Photo Courtesy Clark Thompson
Being named one of the first drivers in the new series’ inaugural year and, being the first woman driver named, is nothing new for Legge. It was on June 27, 2014 that she was introduced by the Amlin Aguri Racing Team as the first female driver in the then new FIA Formula E Championship series. “I am very proud to be driving in the Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY Formula E series for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing,” said Legge. “I have followed Formula E since its inception and have been very impressed with the growth in the electric car market and electric racing as a whole. I have also wanted to drive for Bobby for the past 10 years or more so this for me is the realization of a dream. Driving for a British brand like Jaguar on a global stage and ‘racing to innovate’ sounds like the best kind of challenge to me. I’m excited!”
So are we, Katherine. So are we !
It seems as if FIA electric racing folks have heeded the words of former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, who said, “If You Want Something Done, Ask a Woman”.
Above: The Jaguar I-Pace in NYC's Times Square. Photo Courtesy Jaguar USA
